Lapis and Jasper
by deadpansasser
Summary: Malachite returns for Steven. Warning: Contains a high "level of f*** up"


We had gotten lucky; the weather the entire week had been nasty. Miserable rain every day with no end in sight, but then Friday came around, my first day off from the Big Donut in two weeks since Sadie had promoted me to assistant manager, and the sky was clear, the air was warm, and I was ready to hit the beach.

"Hey Amethyst, you go any plans for the day? You wanna come with me to the beach?" I said, grabbing my keys by the door and shoving them in my pocket.

She finished her bag of chips and said, "Sure Steven, I'm down." She seemed nonchalant with her response, but I knew she was glad I had asked.

As we walked from our small apartment complex through town to the shore, a comfortable silence stretched between us. I looked at her. She was the same as she had always been; strong and carefree, outwardly impervious to anything came her way. She wore the same outfit she had been wearing for almost a decade now- gray muscle shirt with a star cutout over her gem and frayed black shorts. Her wild, lavender hair whipped around her face in the breeze and fell over her eye like it always had. Even looking down at her as I did now, I had to consciously remind myself I was almost 23 to keep from shifting into kid Steven. She caught me looking at her.

"What are you looking at, creeper?" she said playfully.

"Nothing, I'm just really happy you said you'd come with me today. I've been working so much recently, we never get to hang out anymore."

"Eh, I wasn't doing anything today anyway. Just don't make me regret it by talking about all your "responsibilities" like a working-class chump."

I laughed. "Work is the last thing I want to talk about today, trust me. I just want to swim, lay in the sand, and not do anything."

Which is what we did, until the explosion.

KA-FOOSH!

We looked to the left in unison. I saw Amethyst tense up. We both knew the explosion came from the direction of the temple.

"No," I said, answering the unasked question that hung in the air, "we don't have to check it out. We did our time, they can handle themselves."

"You don't have to tell me twice." She laid back down on the sand and closed her eyes. I did the same. I was done with that chapter of my life, we both were. Pearl had made it perfectly clear with that stunt she had pulled after they learned the true nature of the cluster that she'd rather have my mom instead of me. Ruby and Sapphire are probably still arguing in the temple without me to remind them they love each other. Peridot disappeared, and Amethyst was fed up with the fighting and came to live with me. We were just trying to live normal lives without all that drama. A roommate helped me forget about Connie.

There were several more explosions, but neither of us moved a muscle.

I thought that a cloud had moved in front of the sun before I heard the roar of the tsunami.

"Amethyst!" I yelled before I shielded us in a bubble.

The impact of the 100 foot wave sent us tumbling, bouncing off debris and cars, both of us smashed against the wall of the bubble. Again and again the wave pounded the decimated town, shaking the two of us like a snowglobe. Eventually, the water receded and dropped us in the center of the razed town. The bubble popped as I collapsed, my half-human body badly beaten.

"Get up Steven! We have to get out of here!"

Slowly, my senses came back to me. I sat up slowly. My head was pounding. Looking around, I saw only the foundations of buildings or scattered timbers. The reality of the scene hit me. They were all dead. My friends, everyone in the town, my dad... they were all gone.

"Steven, we have to get out of here. Look at me. LOOK AT ME!" Amethyst screamed. "There's nothing we can do. We have to leave. We have to get to safety. I'm going to carry you." I nodded weakly.

Amethyst ran with surprising speed as she headed out of what once was Beach City. We were almost to the "Now Leaving Beach City" sign when a wall of water sprung up in front of us.

"No!" Amethyst screamed, dropping me and summoning her weapon from her gem. I scrambled to my feet and summoned my shield.

"Don't leave so soon."

My blood ran cold.

It was her.

Malachite.

"Just let us go! We don't want to fight you!" I shouted, searching for Malachite herself. Amethyst and I were now back-to-back. I knew how a confrontation her would go. The real question was: why were they back together? "Lapis, please, you've beat this before! You can do it again! Just listen to the sound of my voice! Unfuse so we can talk!"

"Oh Steven, I don't need your help this time." Malachite appeared through a gap in the wall of water, and approached us. Something was different about Malachite this time, though. Before I could figure it out, she gracefully separated into Jasper and Lapis Lazuli.

"Hello again, Steven," Lapis said, coldly. "I've been looking for you." She turned to Jasper. "Jasper, attack Amethyst."

I made my shield wider and repelled Jasper's dash attack with every ounce of strength I had left in me.

"Amethyst is staying with me!" I screamed, but before I could do anything, I was engulfed to my neck in water. Lapis easily moved me out of the way while Jasper ran at Amethyst again.

"Don't worry Steven, I got this!" Amethyst said, whipping Jasper. Jasper easily grabbed the whip, yanked it, and shook it up and down, sending Amethyst flying. Jasper jumped up to her and grabbed her in a bear hug. Amethyst bit her meaty arm, but Jasper squeezed her.

My breath caught in my throat. Amethyst disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Lapis bubbled Amethyst and extended her hand to Jasper.

"Jasper, fuse with me." Mechanically, Jasper spun Lapis and dipped her, similar to the way they had fused the first time, except this time, Jasper's eyes remained locked on Lapis'. Lapis smiled faintly and closer her eyes. With a flash of light, they were Malachite again.

The bubble floating above one of her hands, she skittered toward the gem temple, dragging me in my water confines behind her.

"Lapis, let us go! I know you, you don't want to do this!" I shouted, trying to active whatever power I had used the first time against Lapis' water doppelgangers.

"Steven, you don't know anything about me. We're happy now. I just need you to open the temple. Once you've done that, I'll leave you and Amethyst alone for good." She turned to face me. Two eyes shone bright and focused on me; two were dull and lifeless. Then I noticed her nose. Jasper's gem was flat and cleanly polished.

"What happened to Jasper's gem?" I asked, curious despite my peril.

"That's between me and Jasper, Steven," she replied.

I tried a few more times in vain to free myself before we arrived in front of the temple. The house was gone; only splinters remained after the explosions. The laundry arm and head was also missing. The main warp pad was smashed, but temple door was intact. Malachite's water prison deposited me on the ruined warp pad.

"Now," Malachite began, "open the temple, Steven."

"Why?" I asked.

"That's none of your business. Besides, what do you care? If you did, you'd be in there with the three of them."

She was almost right. Just because I wanted them out of my life didn't mean I wanted anyone to hurt them.

"Promise me you won't hurt them, Lapis." I refused to acknowledge the fusion. I reasoned that if I only addressed her as Lapis, I could connect with her rational side.

"You're really in no position to make demands, but to speed things up, I'll say this. Open the temple door now, and I won't crush Amethyst." She held up my friend's bubbled gem.

"OK, OK! Leave Amethyst alone! I'll do it." My mom's symbol appeared on the door and widened, revealing the pink clouds within.

"What is this? This is not the temple. This is a trick. Steven, you had your chance." Malachite's fingers pressed on the bubble, about to crush Amethyst's gem.

"NO, WAIT! This IS the temple! This is just my room!" I cried. Malachite looked at me, suspicious.

"Show me the harvesting room."

I looked at her, confused, before it finally clicked. Peridot had thought I was going to harvest her when we were in the basement. She must have talked to Peridot.

"Why?"

"Steven, enough questions! Take me there, now!" she roared.

As I entered the room, Malachite separated, leaving Jasper holding Amethyst's gem, and Lapis behind me. As soon as they entered my mom's room, they fused again and bubbled Amethyst.

"Room, show me the way to the basement. The real basement." Once again, the clouds parted just as they had so many years ago, exposing the artery that lead to the basement.

Tiny Pink Floating Whale appeared and spoke to me with my mother's voice, "Steven, are you alright?"

Malachite roared and smashed it with a great, green fist. The whale turned into clouds.

"No funny business, Steven. No alarms, no signals. Just take me there now."

I nodded, climbing onto the pole and sliding down, down, down to the basement. When I slid down, I was able to land softly without disturbing any bubbles, but of course Malachite's gigantic form popped nearly every bubble the Gems had. They all immediately began to reform into horrific monsters, startling Ruby on the opposite side of the room. I had faced some of these corrupted gems once before and barely survived a one-on-one encounter, so I formed a bubble around myself for safety. Malachite screamed with irritation and began pounding them, including Ruby, with two hands and bubbling all the gems with a third. When she had bubbled all of them, she separated again. Lapis summoned water from Pearl's room to elevate her so she could inspect the gems more closely without breaking them, leaving Jasper staring blankly into space. She didn't move.

Lapis' attention was focused on the gems, searching for something, so I slowly crept closer to Jasper. She didn't look at me. I walked right up to her, and still nothing happened. I poked her arm, and it shot out, grabbing my throat and lifting me in the air. I struggled to breathe and release myself from her iron grip.

"Jasper, release Steven," Lapis commanded, and I fell to the floor, gasping for air and coughing.

"What," I coughed, "did you do to her? She's not in there."

"She's fine, Steven. She just... I just..." Lapis trailed off. Lapis collapsed to the floor with a splash. She buried her face in her hands. "She was terrible, Steven! She only stayed fused with me because she needed to control me, to use my power!" The tears were flowing now, streaming down her blue cheeks.

"All that time we spent as Malachite, the only thing that got me through was feeling how horrible she felt that I was stronger than her! After you separated us, she found me again and begged for me to come back. She said she missed me; that she felt so alone without me. She promised this time would be different, and that as crazy as it sounded, she thought she loved me." She gritted her teeth as she said this, her words bitter with rage and regret.

"I was such a fool! I believed her! I believed her because, deep down, I thought I loved her too! But she hadn't changed. She never changed. She'd leave after a fight, saying horrible things because she's such a pathetic sore loser, but then she'd come back, nearly apologetic. She did this for years! Until," she held her head up, looking me straight in the eyes, "I just got tired of it. Jasper had taught me one thing, though. Gems respect force. I found Peridot, and she certainly respected me. She told me about the latest Homeworld procedure for correcting imperfect gems. She even built setup for me, out of respect. Jasper crossed the line that one last time, and I corrected her." She looked at Jasper now. "I thought she would be better. More relaxed, less competitive. Now she's nothing. Jasper, look at me!" she commanded.

Jasper turned and looked at her.

"You're nothing, Jasper! Do you hear me? You're nothing!" she screamed. I backed away at the sudden exclamation. Lapis collapsed into sobbing again, sitting on the small step surrounding the pit of lava in the center of the room.

I didn't know what to do. I had always felt sorry for Lapis, but I couldn't muster any sympathy for her after today. I just stood there.

"I need to find a gem shard that can replace the missing piece. Then you'll heal her and we can finally be happy together," Lapis said with resolve, composing herself. She stood up.

I came to stand next to her as she looked up at the bubbles above her.

"Yeah, Lapis, I'll help you do that," I said gently. With a quick shove, I pushed her into the pit. She was gone without a word.


End file.
